This morning, I took Karma to her first group conformation handling class at the home of our friends, David and Carole Baikow. David and Carole have been showing Doberman Pinschers since the 1960s and own Grand Champion Cardav’s Satish. I met them in February in Lakeland for Orso’s very first dog show weekend and we have kept in touch since then.

During a recent phone conversation, David told me that The Doberman Pinscher Club of Florida, for which he is the president, holds conformation handling classes at his home Saturday mornings and invited me to go with Karma. This was great news to me because there is a huge value to learning showmanship from someone like David and his friends, who all show working dogs. When we hired Orso’s show handler, Daniel Sanchez, he explained to us that it’s crucial that a working dog go into a show ring and ACT like a working dog! This was something Orso did not do since he was not trained to show like a working dog and we definitely feel that it hurt him in the ring at times. We did not want to make the same mistake with Karma, so David’s invitation to join his class put us in the right setting to get Karma off on the right paw!

Karma and I will also be going to other group handling classes, since we can use all the help we can get, but it’s great to be getting guidance from working dog people so Karma can shine in the ring! Thanks, David and Carole!